Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 311

Caleb’s P.O.V

“Okay, then, how about we try to question Ashton and Maggie—”

I didn’t even get the chance to finish my sentence before Jade cut in, his voice sharp and clipped, “You’re not thinking this through, Caleb. You’re just hauling accusations out of nowhere. Thinking out loud was fine, but now you want to drag them into this mess?” 

His words came like a slap, but I held my ground. I could feel the tension in the room spike, like the walls themselves were holding their breath. I took a step forward, meeting his glare with a calm I wasn’t sure I truly felt. 

“Jade, calm down,” I said, keeping my voice steady even though I could feel my pulse thudding in my ears. “We’re all just trying to find answers here. No one’s accusing anyone of anything without cause. But if we don’t ask the hard questions now, we’ll just be chasing shadows.” 

It was Beta Raymond who broke the silence next. His voice was softer, yet carried weight—disappointment, even. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen you react like this, Jade. You’re letting your emotions take control. That’s not the way a beta handles himself.” 

Jade’s expression faltered at Raymond’s words. The fire behind his eyes dulled, replaced with a look I hadn’t seen from him in a long time—shame. His fists clenched for a moment before he took a slow breath, the tension in his shoulders finally giving way. He nodded once, then turned his gaze to me. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, quieter this time. “I didn’t mean to snap. I just—” he stopped, swallowing hard before continuing, “I need a moment.” 

He turned and walked out before anyone else could speak, leaving behind a silence thick with the weight of everything unspoken. 

That’s when my father, Alpha Camden, spoke up from where he’d been quietly observing, arms folded and eyes thoughtful. “It’s late,” he said. “You and Shane should get some rest. We’ll pick this back up in the morning with clearer heads.” 

I turned to him, frustration bubbling just under the surface. “No, Dad,” I said, probably a bit too firmly, but I couldn’t help it. “I can’t rest. Not until I understand what’s going on here. There’s something about this whole thing that keeps nagging at me, like a thorn stuck under my skin. And until I get to the bottom of it, I won’t be able to sleep easily.” 

Alpha Camden raised an eyebrow at me, and I could tell he wanted to push back, to remind me that we couldn’t solve everything in one night.  

Shane placed a hand on my shoulder, grounding me. “Caleb, we’ll figure it out,” he said simply. “But we all need rest, man.”

The wind howled like a wounded beast outside, slamming rain against the windows in relentless waves. Thunder cracked overhead, loud enough to rattle the glass and make the lights flicker. My fists were clenched so tightly they ached, nails digging into my palms, but I barely noticed. I stood at the base of the stairs, pacing, heart pounding in a rhythm that matched the fury of the storm. Every part of me screamed to act, to do something, to move. But instead, I was stuck here, in this suffocating silence, with too many unanswered questions and the taste of blood and guilt still sharp in my mouth.

“We can’t wait until morning,” I snapped, turning to face my father again. My voice was hoarse, raw from yelling, but I didn’t care. “Alpha Jackson needs to hear about this now. Every second we waste—”

My father cut me off with a firm shake of his head, his expression unreadable but his tone absolute. “Caleb, it’s the middle of the night, and there’s a goddamn storm out there tearing everything apart. We can’t get a line out, and even if we could, the signal is going to be too bad for a proper communication. You need to calm down.”

“Calm down?” I echoed bitterly, pacing again. “Dad, we just fought rogue wolves that started to deteriorate themselves! There was black blood…black. You think I can just sit here and wait?”

From the corner, Alice spoke gently, stepping forward with that calm, methodical grace of hers that always seemed to come out in the worst of situations. “We’re not sitting still, Caleb,” she said. “The doctor and I will start running full diagnostics on the corpses tonight…whatever is left of them. I promise you, we’ll try to understand what happened—what could have done this. And I’ll be watching Maggie and Ashton closely. Personally. They won’t take a single breath without me knowing.”

Her words helped, a little. At least someone was doing something. I exhaled slowly, swallowing the knot of frustration in my throat. I gave her a short nod, my chest still heaving slightly. “Thank you, Alice. Just… make sure they’re not a threat. And don’t trust anyone around them. Not yet.”

She nodded, her eyes narrowing with resolve. “You have my word.”

Still burning with unease, I turned to Shane, who had been quietly standing by the door this whole time, his hands buried in the pockets of his worn-out jacket, eyes haunted. I knew that look. It was guilt. Regret. And something else I couldn’t quite place.

We stepped into the elevator, the creak of the old machine somehow louder than usual. As it began its slow rise, Shane finally broke the silence.

“Thanks,” he said quietly. “For not turning your back on me. After everything I did… I wouldn’t have blamed you.”

I looked over at him, studying the way his shoulders slumped under the weight of everything he was carrying. My jaw tightened.

“It’s not just about believing in you, Shane,” I said, my voice lower now, but no less intense. “This isn’t charity. There are too many coincidences lining up, too many threads that all lead back to the same knot. You weren’t here when this all happened, so you’re the only impartial person in this matter. And you might just be the only one who can make sense of this madness.”

He looked at me, his expression unreadable.

“That doesn’t mean you’ve earned our trust again,” I added sharply. “You haven’t. Not yet. But you might be onto something. And for now, that’s enough to keep you close.”

Shane gave a hollow chuckle, running a hand through his soaked hair as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. “I guess that’s the most I can ask for.”

I stepped out first, the hallway dim and silent. “No,” I murmured. “It’s not. You’ll have to prove yourself, Shane. Not just to me, but to every single person whose life might depend on what comes next.”

The storm raged on outside. But inside, I felt something shift. Not peace—far from it. But a crack in the darkness. A thread of something just barely holding together. And right now, that would have to be enough.